Do you have a heading sensor?

There has been an interesting discussion on electronic vs mechanical heading devices, which has morphed into a disccussion of other types of heading devices, etc.

Let's see how our boats are equipped with this poll.

I suppose my AP20 must get confused. It has a fluxgate compass. The nmea 2000 network has a rate compass for a heading sensor. Then there is whatever the plotter is telling it off the GPS fixes.

Ted

Fluxgate compass for the Commav autopilot and a kvh 1000 for radar overlay on the SH cp590.

Having not read the other thread first, I misunderstood your question and didn't include the traditional magnetic compass. My assumption, from your question, was a heading sensor that imputed heading to your chart plotter.

Ted

I'm surprised that magnetic compass isn't 100%, as a boat with much size at all comes with one unless we have a lot of folks on this forum with 16 ft runabouts and canoes.

I'm also surprised that 40% have a flux gate or rate compass... that's a lot.

Anyone with an autopilot has a minimum of a flux gate.

My guess the active folk on this forum own something larger than runabout and canoes...though they may own them in addition to their larger boat.

Yes. 2 of them.

In my 1st post I failed to list that I have a mechanical compass at each helm besides the 2 electronic. I use them mainly for verification of the 2 electronic and for holding a course on the lakes, don't really use any on the river.

Capt.Bill11 said:

Yes. 2 of them.

Click to expand...

Canoes or compasses?

psneeld said:

Anyone with an autopilot has a minimum of a flux gate.

My guess the active folk on this forum own something larger than runabout and canoes...though they may own them in addition to their larger boat.

Click to expand...

This boat and the previous two I had with autopilots did (do) not have flux
gates, just regular "whiskey" compasses.

Ted

Yes I have a heading sensor. It was needed for radar overlay on the chart plotter.

Ted said:

This boat and the previous two I had with autopilots did (do) not have flux
gates, just regular "whiskey" compasses.

Ted

Click to expand...

Wood Freeman?

Otherwise, how did they steer?

I guess I should have modified it with most boats with auto pilots.

psneeld said:

Wood Freeman?

Otherwise, how did they steer?

I guess I should have modified it with most boats with auto pilots.

Click to expand...

One of my early charter boats had a Wood Freeman with the magnetic compass and sensor on the bottom.

Ted

psneeld,
This boat has a Wagner Mark4 pilot head and magnetic compass with a
4 1/2 inch card. It controls a Wood Freeman 110 volt dc power pack, I
think I would need more knowledge of it before I would "dig" into it.

The previous boat I put a Comnav 2001 pilot on with a compass with
a 9 or 9 1/2 card, (still have the compass, considering a change).
It controlled a set of solenoid valves, the hydraulics were driven off
the DD 3-53 engine.

Prior to that I had a Cetrec ,the compass was magnetic, mounted in
an enclosed case. The power was a reversing electric driven hydraulic
pump.

The best unit was the Comnav 2001.

Ted

Interesting...other than a few wood freeman on commercial boats here and there.....

Usually nothing I have driven has had anything but flux gate or rate.....even the commercial boats.

I apologize, didn't think there were that many compass card driven autopilots out there....for one guy to have 3 in a row.

I too had two magnetic compass driven outopilots in a row. Admittedly they are now very old units, the first on my present boat, installed in 1980, the other on my last sailboat, installed in 1982. Both driving Wagner S-50 Autopilots, and doing a very good job of it. When I replaced my Wagner with a Raymarine Autopilot a few yrs ago, I kept the magnetic compass at the helm, though it is merely a decoration now, as a fluxgate drives the newer autopilot.

On my sail boat ( Pacific Seacraft 37 ) I have the standard cockpit bulkhead mounted spirit compass (very nice to look at by the way, and I use it constantly), and an Airmar H2183 solid state compass, integrated into the N2K network, providing data for the MFDs and the autopilot.

On my, new to me, Krogen 39, I intend to use, not only the standard spirit compass located at the helm, but, integrated into the N2K network, an Airmar 220WX, mounted on the mast, which includes essentially the H2183 electronic compass as part of it's features (beside WX stuff, and a current technology GPS sensor, 10HZ, WAAS, etc.,).

twistedtree said:

Canoes or compasses?

Click to expand...

Both.

3 sources (Magnetic, AP and GPS).....all read differently. I've gotta get on that..

5 GPS/Chartplotters (One chartplotter/GPS and one GPS in PH, one chartplotter/GPS on FB and two built in on the VHF radios). One fluxgate in AP (I have dual AP but I think they share the one fluxgate), one standard magnetic compass.

So seven in all.

Plus one wife telling me where I am going who is always on.

Heron said:

3 sources (Magnetic, AP and GPS).....all read differently. I've gotta get on that..

Click to expand...

They likely will never read exactly the same.

Nor should they in some cases.

Interesting results in the poll so far.

- 20% don't have a traditional magnetic compass. I would have expected close to zero.

- 17% have sat compasses. That's more than I expected. I figured less than 10%.

- Unfortunately I didn't design the poll well enough to figure out what % have some sort of electronic compass (fluxgate, rate compass, or sat compass). 55% have fluxgates, so it's at least that many. And 40% have rate compasses. Some of those could have fluxgates too, but probably not all, so the percent with electronic compasses is somewhere between 55% and 95%.

Magnetic compass at both helms, compass in autopilot, compass in chart plotter, compass in each of our smartphones. Oh and I forgot the compass in the binoculars.

Like the man with 2 watches...he never knows the exact time!

twistedtree said:

Interesting results in the poll so far.

- 20% don't have a traditional magnetic compass. I would have expected close to zero.

- 17% have sat compasses. That's more than I expected. I figured less than 10%.

- Unfortunately I didn't design the poll well enough to figure out what % have some sort of electronic compass (fluxgate, rate compass, or sat compass). 55% have fluxgates, so it's at least that many. And 40% have rate compasses. Some of those could have fluxgates too, but probably not all, so the percent with electronic compasses is somewhere between 55% and 95%.

Click to expand...

Twistedtree,

Good poll and enlightening.

I'm also surprise that 100% don't have a whisky compass. Also surprised how many have fluxgate/or rate compasses.... might suspect a lot were necessary for AP or radar input.

When I participated in the poll, I entered "Rate compass" before I actually read the question and saw "Select all that apply", and there is no way to correct after the fact. 4 fingers of scotch does that to me.

I actually have Rate, Fluxgate (standby) and Magnetic compasses onboard. I wonder if I'm the only participant that did that

Based on a prior thread I still wonder how many say they have a "satellite compass" but really only have a GPS plotter. Perhaps those who answered that they have a sat comp, could give us the brand and model and how they use it?

twistedtree said:

Interesting results in the poll so far.

- 20% don't have a traditional magnetic compass. I would have expected close to zero.

- 17% have sat compasses. That's more than I expected. I figured less than 10%.

- Unfortunately I didn't design the poll well enough to figure out what % have some sort of electronic compass (fluxgate, rate compass, or sat compass). 55% have fluxgates, so it's at least that many. And 40% have rate compasses. Some of those could have fluxgates too, but probably not all, so the percent with electronic compasses is somewhere between 55% and 95%.

Click to expand...

Most of the above.

Com Nav now gets its compass from Maretron solid state compass. Works much better than Flux gate, which is standby.
Three more gps compasses, radar, vhf radios.
Plus my tablet gps and cell gps that both have Navionics charts.

I installed several compass apps on my android phone for fun.
I just never need a compass, I have my GPS and OpenCpn with ENC charts from NOAA free, and Cmap, on a PC screen.

Actually only would use a compass if all my charts broke and then I still wont know exactly where I am.

I also have several ENC chart apps installed on my android S4 phone as backup. They plot my course and show me where I am.

caltexflanc said:

Based on a prior thread I still wonder how many say they have a "satellite compass" but really only have a GPS plotter. Perhaps those who answered that they have a sat comp, could give us the brand and model and how they use it?

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Good question, and I think you are correct. i see lots of people referring to their "gps compass" or something similar. Most likely they are talking about the course over ground reported by a GPS when it's moving, and only when its moving. COS is not necessarily the same as HDG.

And to seevee's comment, I agree that it's likely an autopilot or radar that has motivated the installation of an electronic compass of some sort.

Getting back to sat compasses, we have a Hemisphere V103 which is the same as a comnav G2, simrad HS80, and pretty much all other comparable devices other than Furuno who make their own.

caltexflanc said:

Based on a prior thread I still wonder how many say they have a "satellite compass" but really only have a GPS plotter. Perhaps those who answered that they have a sat comp, could give us the brand and model and how they use it?

Click to expand...

Furuno SC-50 on my boat. My autopilot, AIS, chart plotter and radar use it by default. I believe my chartplotter (or, more accurately, my NN3D network) provides position, time and other nav info to radios and other equipment, and I believe that it gets all of that info, by default, from the sat compass.

Now that I think about it, the scanning sonar (which is not an NN3D peripheral) adjusts for pitch and roll, and gets that information from the sat compass, too. There are probably other uses I am forgetting.